Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-07-02
Womens' Rights.
Thirty Years Ago and Now.

hDu EuDckhuCCs hH "NaNf years SEQ, the limitations Of the sex We're far greater than we find them to- day. It was not & sudden outbreak and protest of few, but the expression of a general discontent at state or things that left woman, her person. property and children so dependent upon the will of the husband and Ia ther, that she felt herself more bond woman than wife. At that time di- vorce between the parties was compare lively rare, and was always regarded as a reprosch.
 The sense of duty inheren: in the people made the relations of the mar riage contract pre-emiuen.ly sacred and anything likely to weaken this sense ot consecrstion was looked upon with special dlsfavor; hence the bitter an- tagonism and cruel abuse At first heaptd upon the advocates of this reform who were accused of favoring many aud grieyious immoralities utterly foreign to their character.
 A generation or more has passed away, or rather has arisen. and the pubic better understand the nature Of the movement
 I remember that at that time-I al though quite young-like many others, jumped at the ballot box as the only remedy. I wrote many articles such as they were against 1t. Que on the "Dig- nity of Lsbor," III which I tried to show up the prevailing disabilities of the sex, and agreed that suffrage alone seemed the only true remedy. l stlll think SO, though the progress of events has SO Tar modified these disabilities that woman may now do pretty much as she pleasess, whether married or single. There Is now little talk about sphere, and the defiDition I then gave. SO long SEQ, The measures of capacity IS the meas ure to either man or woman IS generally accepted.
 We are now doctors, lawyers, mel chants, artists and scientists of every kind and grade, and our doings attrsc; little or no attention. unless they be- come awtully ard enormously wicked. And the world has grown SO tolerant that scarcely can s woman find gury to convict her, even though she resorts to the pistol, dirk, or poison,
 This IS A wonderful change wrought in the last thirty years. A part ot which mus. be referr=l to the womGn's moyemsr. aud part to the inEsTdness or thought and action in accordance with the iptlCx of foreign thinkers md theorlzers. Our own ever-quesuOnIng activity as a people and the greater latitude of the sex ID matters ot opinion.
 think, ss & people, We are morally worse than We were thirty years sgo. Whether the women are at the bottom of this retrogrRde movement or not, may be a subject of question.
 At any rate multitude of women have reached that stage of development that they will no longer be subordinRted. They insist upon the rights of citizenship ID the masculine sense of franchise. Wives, widows and spinters of every shade and condition clBim the privI- leges pertaining to the republic, and II is useless to gainssy them. had hoped that the sex would infuse a nobler and ADAR RbAAe@NHs 1NN woman politicians are about the same as their brothers, plotting and planning 2 for success, leaving tU time make things straight or otherwise. And So It goes.
 This question of suffrage does no. by any means stand alone. Once all the women went to church of "A Sun day, bringing out thelr pretty b oods with maternal pride, Now they fear lessly question the dogmas of the church. send their children to the Sun- day School or not, and lounge out the day and home. This church going in the past was a great element m the or derly methods of the family. All classes looked forward Co IL with in.erest-wssh- ed for it, dressed for 1t and behGv- ed for 1t. IL was day of clean lIness and decoTum not entirely expended during the following week. IL Is true the women were and are very much under the sway of the priest, but gradually the black coat and white cravst have disappeared. and WIih them the awe they inspired. Women now preach lecture-snd expound the scrip ture, and in casting themselves ndritt from old dogm8s, have let family re- responsibilities drift away with them, many gone to the Devll and the diverse courts,
 This is however DO. all their fault, for the pulpit has ceased to be the guide 1t once was, and is somewhat dsZed at the doings of the fair sex. Ministers are not so much coddled and petted by the full- fieeced lambs of their hOcks 8s they were. They are in fact barely able to take in the situation; .hey see the 6if- ference, and feel it toO, but what are they to do? The women will not abide old Paurs injunction that they should hold their tongues. and in all doubtful points if they will learn anything ask 1t of their husbands at home, for he poor man, may know a great deal less than his wife, and may not be willing to honest ly utter, "I do not know"
 It is certain wide spread sceptIcism pervsdes the minds of women, and the pastor must not presume too much upon the ignorance or tolerance of his lambs. Yet women are frequently informed from the pulpit that they owe all that pertains to happiness and culture to the Christian religion. as ifup to the advent of Christ the fair sex were ID the bends of iniquity and very bitterness of thral- dom, under hard muster not yet emerged from ssvazeness, all labor all burdens consigned tO Der back. while man stretches his lOrdly limbs in the chase, or ID :he pRnalply of the battle field. Whereas, a very high degree Of culture prevailed among some pagan nR- tions before the IDce ptlon of christianity, and they had their gods and prophets and founders of religion based upon pure morals and abstract ideas, aud though the tendency of oriental civih- zation was to isolate and seclude women. she had high degree of freedom, and women oisuperior cspscitity had avsiled themselves of 1t, and were eminent ID many ways,
 The women of Homer gre graceful, versatile, and possess a full share of the freedom of the age,
 Indeed the women of antiquity by no means filled subordinate positions. They ruled empires, they listened to phIlosophIc teachings. held offices in the Temples of the Gods, and the vestsls were tresteds with more than royal honors. Semriramis, AspstIs, Cleopatrs, HypstiR. Zenobis, women of marked and merit, were all psgsns and overcsme any disabilities that may be inherent in the sex, Women, like man, owes to the teachings of Christ I,;ryhar atan1ar1 oF unorais htniing alika